


Cat's Paw

by Morrigan1986



Series: The Other Gods [2]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Avengers/Loki teamup, F/M, Gen, Helicarrier gets trashed, Kidnapping, Loki Redemption
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-30
Updated: 2014-07-24
Packaged: 2017-12-21 19:57:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/904263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morrigan1986/pseuds/Morrigan1986
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki has escaped from his prison and the Avengers are on the look out for him but what they discover when they find him two years later could put not just the Earth but the entire Universe at risk. At the same time, the people of New York begin to wonder if they should move somewhere else.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Nick Fury stood on the bridge of the Helicarrier staring at the night sky.  Two years ago Thor had returned from Asgard to inform them that Loki had somehow escaped his imprisonment.  They had been on alert waiting for any sign of his return but nothing, not a whisper, not a glimpse.  Maybe he’s not coming back. Maybe he’s found somewhere else, were the whispers among the SHIELD agents, Fury did not buy it.  Loki was not going to let his defeat remain unchallenged.

Suddenly alarms began ringing on the bridge.  “Sir, we have anomalous readings.  It’s...it’s very faint, sir.”  One of the crew called out, mildly confused by the readings.  This could be what they were waiting for.

“Where are the readings coming from?” demanded Maria Hill coming up beside Fury.

“Um...Paris...narrowing down...It appears the readings are coming from the Palais Garnier opera house.”  The tech responded.

“Sir, facial recognition hit.  Confirm Loki has been spotted at the opera house in Paris.” Another tech called out from a computer terminal further down.

“Contact the Avengers and send them the coordinates then contact Asgard and let Thor know we have found Loki.” Fury ordered.

“We have visual coming in now sir. Uh, you’re going to want to see this...”

 

Tony Stark, known to many as Iron Man, arced over the Seine heading towards the opera house.  Captain America, Steve Rodgers, Clint “Hawkeye” Barton and Natasha “Black Widow” Romanoff were following  behind in a Quinjet.  He was interested to find out what the squirrelly demigod was doing in Paris.  The building was surrounded by police when Tony arrived.  Once he got inside and past the police cordon he could see exactly why the Avengers had been called in, and he could not have been more surprised.  The place was a disaster.  A tornado would have done less damage.  In the centre of the room stood Loki breathing heavily. 

Loki rounded on the approaching Avengers  “Where is she?!” he yelled, his eyes wide and wild.  He grabbed the front Captain America’s costumes.  “I will rip out your spleen and wear it as a hat if you have hurt her.”  He hissed.

 

 

The other Avengers pulled out their weapons.  Iron Man stepped forward  “Hey Bag of Cats!  What the hell are you talking about?”  he grabbed  Loki by the shoulder to pull him but Loki instead rounded on him hitting the armour in the face with an intense ball of flame.

“You pitiful little mortals, you think me stupid?  We have been unchallenged everywhere we have gone until we came back to this pathetic little backwater realm.”  He was clearly beyond rational thought right now due to rage.

Before Loki could do more damage to the Avengers he was pulled away.  Loki turned to attack the interloper.  “Stop this!  We are not going to get Reagan back if you go all half cocked against everyone.” The other man said.  Loki collapsed to the ground, the will to fight leaving him.  Hawkeye continued to aim his bow at Loki but others tried to train their weapons on both.

“You are coming with us, both of you.”  Captain America said slightly confused. 

The other man looked up “We’ll come quietly.  There is much we’ll need to talk about.”

Iron Man tilted his head quizzically “Sean?”   

Once their prisoners were seated in the Quinjet the whole situation got weirder.  “Sean Rushkin? Tell me I’m seeing this correctly.  That is Sean Rushkin, head of tech giant RedSand Enterprises!”  Tony exclaimed.

“Maybe it’s the new thing for billionaire playboys to take on demi-gods.” Clint quipped from the pilot’s seat.

The Avengers were still trying to make sense of the situation into which they had stumbled by finding and arresting Loki.  Loki fighting the turmoil of emotions  Reagan was missing, the Avengers had captured him and his only ally at this time was Sean.  He was not sure how much help he was going to be.  He had only agreed to this silly night out that Reagan and Sean had planed because his wife had explained it be the height of rudeness to visit Midgard but not visit Sean, who had set up a bit of a court in exile on the mortal world.  He had been shocked to see him arrive at the opera house with a lady who was clearly not his wife, especially since back in the Kingdom Sean and his wife were considered the paragon of marriage.  _Shows how much you can trust appearances_ , he snorted.  _As long as he helps me get Reagan and-_.  He shook his head it do dwell on what could go wrong.

Clint radioing the Helicarrier was the only thing to break the heavy silence in the jet “This is Avengers Quinjet approximately thirty minutes out.”

The officer on the other end responded almost immediately.  “Roger, Quinjet.  Thor and Banner will be meeting  you when you arrive.   Will you be needing any further assistance with the prisoners?” the voice crackled over the radio.

Clint looked back at the two unhappy passengers.  “We should be fine but just in case send a few extra guards.” 

 

The  Avengers escorted their prisoners into a conference room.  “We’re not sure yet what if anything they’ve done,” Captain America reminded them.  The two men were unsettling quiet.

“Brother!”  Thor rushed over to grab his brother  on a bone crushing embrace.  Loki squirmed frantically to escape Thor’s grasp.  “I am glad we have found you before you could cause more trouble.  We had worried that you had been gravely hurt or killed in the escape but you must return,  whatever punishment Father devised you should not have run away.  My banishment taught me much, it would have done the same for you.  Come home and end this now.”

Fury stomped into the room, “Someone tell me what is going on!” yelled Fury.

“Honestly sir, I’m not all that sure myself.” Captain Rodgers piped up, rubbing the back of his head.  “They haven’t said anything  relating to the events in Paris.  They... haven’t spoken one word since we picked them up.  We don’t know what happened.”

“Where is my wife?  You must have done something with her.  We were enjoying a nice, _quie_ t night out when suddenly  chaos breaks out and lo and behold who appears, none other but the mighty Avengers.  Were you so frightened about facing me that you decided to punish me through her?” Loki ranted.  

“What?”  Tony uttered flatly.

“You have a wife? How do _you_ have a wife? When did this happen?” Clint asked in confusion.

“Brother is this true?”  Thor asked in confusion.

Loki looked a little affronted by the question “I am perfectly capable of attracting a mate.” He huffed.

All Clint could think to respond to that was “How?”

“That is not important right now.  We were attacked at the opera house.” Sean cut in trying to focus the conversation back towards the problem at hand “The attackers seemed to know that we would be there tonight and who exactly to look for.”

“Wait I want to go back to the part where Reindeer games has a wife.  I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that.” Tony added to no one in particular.

“What do you mean knew who to look for?” Captain Rogers asked his military mind trying to gather the important information and Loki’s marital status was not.

“The opera was attacked by tall, gangly creatures.  You know they kinda looked like those creatures that attacked New York.” Sean gestured, everyone else in the room tensed up a little at the mention of the Chitauri.  “Anyways, they’re the ones who grabbed Reagan.”

Before anyone could ask the Helicarrier was rock by a large explosion.


	2. Chapter 2

Alarms were ringing everywhere as the Avengers pulled themselves up off the floor.  Sean was already making his way towards the monitors.  “Do you have visuals on the attackers?” he asked, scanning the screens.

 Fury was barking out orders into his com “Status report!” He came up behind Sean, “And pull up all visuals on the attackers and send it to conference room A.”  He gave him a level stare “I really hope you aren’t screwing with me.”

 Sean ignored him and focused on the images appearing on the screen.  A couple of hulking humanoid shapes covered in crude symbols lumbered down the halls of the Helicarrier on several screens.  He cursed quietly under his breath.

 The good captain spoke up “Um... What _are_ they?”

 Clint leaned forward to get a better look at the images “Whatever they are they have the worst paint job I have ever seen.”

 “That’s not paint, its blood.  Where’s your sprinkler control?”  Sean was searching around frantically.

 Fury raised an eyebrow “Why exactly do you need the sprinklers for?”

 The bridge officer reported in “Sir, there are a dozen um... hostiles moving towards the bridge.  All attempts to stop them have failed so far.” There was a long pause “We could really use the Avengers help.”  Tony, Thor, Steve, Clint and Natasha rushed out to assist. 

 Bruce Banner looked nervously at the remaining people “I’m not sure that the other guy would be much help in this situation.” Sean gave a small laugh but otherwise ignored him.  “ _Again_...What _are_ they?”  Bruce asked uncomfortable with the tense atmosphere.

 “They are called Constructs.  They are magical creations made from scrap.  Nigh unstoppable and probably capable of going toe to toe with the Hulk without difficulty. Hopefully the sprinklers will wash away the blood.  Without the symbols the Constructs won’t function.”  Sean explained  “This is the only thing I can think of to do.  I was never really the magically type.  Damn I wish Reagan was here.”  He turned towards Loki “She didn’t teach you anything helpful for this situation did she?” he asked hopefully.

 Loki shook his head “She never mention anything about fighting Constructs.  I’m sure that I have sufficient training to take them on.”

 Sean taped rapidly on the keys, pulling up the Helicarrier’s emergency systems and triggering the sprinkler system unleashing a flood of stagnant, artificial rain on everyone.  “OK, that should do it.”  He looked up at the screens again and swore just as a bridge officer contacted the conference room again.

 “Director Fury, the... creatures are splitting up, we have pairs heading towards the engines, the hanger and armoury now. Shit! Sir, we are showing additional attackers!  They appear to be Chitauri!  They’ve just appeared out of nowh...” the signal cut out dissolving into static.  Fury cursed under his breath and did the quick arithmetic of leaving the two in the room unguarded versus not ending this attack quickly.  _Banner will have to be enough._ He thought. 

 He turned to the wary scientist “Make sure they don’t leave the room, I don’t care if you have Hulk out to do it.  The Helicarrier is being torn apart around us as it is.”  With that the SHEILD director rushed out to join the fray.

 The three remaining men in the conference room looked at each other awkwardly before the floor began to vibrate, heralding the five Constructs stampeding up the hallway just outside the conference room.  One skidded to a halt and swung back around, crushing a two foot section of door frame under its grasp.  “I suggest we run, if that’s alright with you.”Loki said.

 

 “...We have pairs heading towards the engines, the hangers and armoury now.”  Tony peeled off from the rest.  He was finding that he did not particularly like fighting in tight spaces in his armour; it gave him no room to manoeuvre.  He couldn’t fly so he was forced to run through the halls.  He came up behind the group that was heading for Engine Number One.  A blast from his gauntlet repulsor tore apart the arm of one of the creatures.  They spun around readying to attack.  Another blast caught one full its torso, splitting it in two.  The two halves continued around for a moment before the artificial rain destroyed the symbols powering it.  The one armed Construct lashed out, grabbing Tony’s helmeted face and slamming him into a wall.  He saw stars and his HUD flickered.  “Ok, that hurt.”  The creature was now slowly crushing Tony’s helmet and with it his head.  He grappled with his attacker’s arm trying desperately to pull himself free.  He was forced to blast it off with his chest reactor.  He collapsed onto the ground as the creature’s hand fell away now that the rest of it was cinders.  Tony scrambled back up to rejoin the fight.

 Clint and Natasha were well ahead of the rest of the Avengers and nearly at the bridge when the sprinklers came on soaking them.  It did not even slow the pair down.  Meeting up with Maria Hill they organized the defence.  The SHEILD agents had just reached the bridge before the first wave of attackers.  Guns opened fire biting into the Constructs marching forward.  The firearms were having as much of an effect as they had been earlier. The Constructs were unconcerned with the bullet holes riddled in their bodies.  “It’s still not working!”  Natasha yelled over to Clint on the other side of the room.

Clint notched another explosive tipped arrow.  It flew through the air embedding itself in chest of one of the creatures.  The resulting explosion blow away much of the head and upper torso but the legs and one arm continued to move.  _I’m going to run out of explosive tips if this continues.  Need to try another tactic_.  “We need to come up with a new plan.”

 

 Steve was having a hard time maintaining traction in the wet conditions.  Smooth floors and water meant that he was limited on how fast he could move.  He could see Thor vainly trying to keep his footing too.  Thankfully their weapons of choice meant they did not need to move about much in order to hammer at the enemy.  The hanger was already being trashed by four large Constructs.  The symbols on them were already smeared and running.  Steve threw his shield at the closest.  It turned around supernaturally fast and pulled the shield from the air.  Tossing the shield to the ground it lunged for Steve.  Molnjir’s impact caused it to stumble and gave the good captain enough time to dodge its blows.  The other three took this as their cue to join in.  Soon the two were trading blows and trying to avoid the four inch talons that ended each ‘finger’.  The captain made a dive for his shield laying only feet away.  He brought it up in time to stop a lethal strike from above.  Thor tore the arm off one and bashed in another with his hammer.

The agents on the bridge were running dangerously low on bullets.  Of the six  Constructs only two had been disabled.  Though none of the agents wanted to say it but they couldn’t hold off the rest of them for much longer.  Suddenly one of the Constructs exploded from behind.  Nick Fury stood behind the attackers carrying the destroyer gun.  With the Director to help them now the last of the Constructs were quickly taken care of.  “Now let’s clear out the rest of the trash.”

 

 Bruce followed after Loki as they fled from the pursuers, he was not letting him out of his sight.  He was only barely staying in control but he would be more useful as Banner than the other guy.  Loki was making a lot of sharp turns to try and throw off the creatures behind them.  The animated piles of scrap were not able to corner very well especially with the water pouring down.  He was not all too sure where they were going but Loki certainly seemed to and he was content to follow.  They eventually ended up looping back around to the conference room.  Loki quickly headed over to the monitors to check up on the others.  Bruce took a few deep steadying breaths hoping to keep calm.  He caught movement out of the corner of his eye.  Two Chitauri stood in the doorway.  He positioned himself between the two in the doorway and Loki at the computer. He could just see Loki turn to face their new attackers and bring his hands up in front of him.  Before anyone could move everything seemed to go dark and Bruce fell to the ground.

 

Loki was completely and thoroughly lost.  He left the conference room with the purpose of locating Sean in the chaos but he hadn’t found him  had no idea where anyone else was.  A repulsor blast shot past his head.  He spun around to see Tony standing behind him.  “What was that for?” he shouted. Tony only shrugged in his armour.  Loki narrowed his eyes at the clearly childish behavior “We may as well head back to the conference room then.”  The armoured man lead the way back to the conference room.  Turning into the room Loki stopped short at the sight of two Constructs leaning over the prone form of Dr Banner.  He felt a twinge of guilt that the good doctor was in this precarious position because he had availed himself of the opportunity to get a modicum of revenge on the beast for their last encounter.  He threw a conjured dagger straight into the first attacker.  The attacker dropped like a stone to floor or more correctly a pile on inanimate metal.  Tony took out the second with a well placed blast

 

 With the battle over everyone had gathered back in the conference room.  Bruce had woken up and was now sheepishly sitting in the corner.  He thought it was a bit of a blessing that the other guy had avoided making an appearance.  Sean looked from Bruce to Loki and pursed his lips.  “Ok I’m going to need some explanation from you two.  Right now.” Fury ordered.  Loki and Sean looked at each.

Loki turned away “Never you mind.” He said crossly.  Sean gave him another look.  Now was not the time to angering potential allies turning them into potential roadblocks.   

 Fury crossed his arms “This is not a request!  My ship has been attacked and these creatures were clearly after you!  YOU ARE GOING TO TELL ME WHY!”  Loki continued to sulk.

 Sean sighed when he noticed the set expression of everyone around.  The Avengers were not going to let them go without answers.  “They’re trying to kill us.”  This was met with sarcasm. 

"I think we are going to need a bit more than that."  Fury said.  "We can start with who you really are" pointing to Sean "And you are doing here" pointing to Loki.

 Thor chimed in “Yes how ever did you escape from your prison brother?”

 “Asgard must have terrible security.”  Was all Loki would say. 

 “I’m not sure as to why the Chitauri are here controlling the Constructs.  Do you know why they’d take her?” Sean asked Loki.

 Loki shook his head.  Thinking about why the Chitauri would take Reagan was terrifying.  He knew how powerful they were but how did they know where they were going to be?  How did they know to grab Reagan?   “As for what we are doing here, on Midgard, I have already explained we were going to the opera.”  This was greeted to a round of incredulous looks.  “Reagan asked me to show her this little world I was so eager to conquer.”  He took a deep breath, it was going to be hard.  “I failed to conquer Midgard, I will be punished for this failure.  I suspect that the Chitauri are here to meet out that punishment.”

 “The Constructs are usually a creature created by enemies of my people, mainly because they aren’t alive they are not susceptible to some of our... abilities.  If the Chitauri have been given control of an army of such creatures then there is something larger at foot than simple revenge for failed promises.”  

 The Avengers looked at each other, it was beginning to look like they were going have to work with Loki.

 “Sit down.  We have _a lot_ to talk about.” Fury said forcefully.


	3. Chapter 3

The cameras had gone some point in the middle of the fight, due either to the water or the creatures. Tony had been 'recruited' by Fury to get the system back up but so far it was proving itself more stubborn than Stark.

Sean examined a piece of Construct scrap "I may be able to trace its origin. I'll need to make some preparations first. Let me just call my people and we can be on our way."

Fury put out a hand out to stop him "Where do you think you're going? We haven't finished yet and I'm not so sure we should trust you."

Loki's jaw clenched "If you want to stop the people who attacked you then you need to work with us. If you chose to lock us up then you will continue to face wave after wave of attackers. Our interest align right now, don't waste this opportunity."

The Avengers did not too particularly happy with this, but finally Sean and Loki were allowed to leave to make the necessary arrangements. "Thank you, I'll let you know the second I have everything set up." Sean said.

* * *

The Avengers waited until the other two were well beyond hearing range to discuss the situation.

"Anyone else think that there is a lot more going on than any of them are saying?" Bruce asked.

"Yeah, everything is just a little too convenient for me." Natasha agreed.

"Thor have you ever heard of these people?" Steve asked, turning to the demi-god.

Thor shook his head "I have never heard of this covenant nor of the war they spoke of. Asgard has not much contact with the realms beyond the Yggdrasil. They could yet be speaking the truth."

"Aha!" cried out Tony "Got the cameras back up and running!" The others ignored him.

"I don't like this. There are too many unanswered questions. Loki says that the Chitauri are after him because he failed to conquer but wasn't he in control of the army or wasn't he? How'd they know where they'd be? Why kidnap Loki's wife? God I still can't believe that I said that. I won't have believed it if it wasn't for the fact that Sean seems to back up Loki's assertions." Clint griped, he was not happy at all with the idea of working with Loki, and even less happy with the idea that Loki might not be quite as guilty as they all thought.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it was Opera with a side of world domination for those two." Tony added in.

"Please, my friends, do not pass judgment on my brother until we know the truth. The events of late does argue for them telling the truth." Thor interjected.

"I agree with Thor. If we judge them solely based on Loki's past behaviour we may be condemning innocent people. This... Sean Ruskin has been obviously living here for many years now." Steve turned to the SHIELD agents "Has he ever been a threat before?" the three shifted uncomfortably.

"No." Natasha had to admit.

"See?" Steve gestured towards them "We have no reason to mistrust them beyond the fact that Loki was with them when we found them. If we take Loki out of the equation then everything does seem far more reasonable. They were attacked by enemy forces and they are willing to help us to defeat this enemy. They did not need to."

Bruce nodded sheepishly "Ok, I can understand that. I guess the question becomes what do we do? Because I doubt whoever is after them is going to stop after one failed attempt. You heard what they said. They will keep trying until they succeed. So what do we do?" he asked.

After a long silence, "If this friend of Loki's can find where these creatures came from we may be able to hunt them down and destroy them. Where ever these creatures masters are we will find my brother's wife ." Thor calculated.

It did not take too long for Clint to speak up on that one: "So we just take our lead from them? I don't think that safe."

"We have little choice but to work with the two of them despite how much I'd love to throw them _both_ into a jail cell until they tell me what I want to hear." Fury ended the discussion.

Tony piped up just then "Isn't anyone going to congratulate me on fixing the security system? It was really hard."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter The Avengers launch their rescue effort.


	4. Chapter 4

Maria Hill crossed her arms and glared faintly at Sean as he hovered over the shoulder of one of the agents placed in front of a computer terminal. He had sent the last thirty minutes flitting between terminals, quickly scanning the screens before moving on to the next. He wasn’t looking at any of the reports from the attacks both in Paris and on the Helicarrier, instead he was looking at the daily reports; police and emergency services reports, updates on war zones and field reports from agents. It did not sit well with her. Loki had forced to sit at the conference table with the Avengers and the seven of them were silently ignoring each other.

“Got it!” Sean shouted. Everyone turned towards in agitated excitement. Loki was out of his chair and next to Sean in a flash “Where?” he was desperate to find his wife safe and sound.

Clint looked over the information on the screen “I don’t get it. It’s just a gas leak down by the docks. See the police have the area cordon off. This is nothing, you’re just wasting our time.”

Sean gave him an enigmatic smile “Notice anything odd about the report? So the cops have two square blocks cordon off but no one from the gas company is there fixing it. In fact there is not a single, solitary soul inside those two square blocks. Seems a little odd, no?”

Clint shrugged a little uncomfortably “I guess its a little odd, but that still doesn’t mean anything.” he challenged.

“So these villains do not wished to be disturbed then?” Thor asked “We can easily change that!”

Sean sighed “It’s not as easy as that. The Chitauri aren’t the reason why the area is deserted, it’s Reagan.” He noticed the blank look the superheroes “The reason no one is inside that empty zone is that there is a part of their brain that refuses to let them walk in there. They’ll make up reasons why they can’t go there such as a gas leak but as I pointed out no one there, not even homeless.”

“Why?” Fury barked out.

Sean was getting uncomfortable, he looked over at Loki “To avoid collateral damage.”

“Well it’s nice to hear that someone is worried about innocent people getting hurt.” Stark muttered darkly.

Fury was already moving unto the next step; planing a strike on the warehouse “Agents please escort our guests to the cells. Romanoff prep the Quinjet, you’ll be off ASAP.” There was a polite cough behind him. Fury turned back to look at Sean.

“You can’t just walk in there. like I said everyone subconsciously avoids the area. You can send them in there all you want but they aren't going to get any further than the cordon.”

“Let me guess, you can get us past the barrier.” Fury said sardonically.

“Put cuffs on us if it'll make you feel better but we are going with you.” Loki gave him a very dirty look at the mention of handcuffs. He did not want to ever be chained again but if it guaranteed Reagan’s safe return he would do it.

* * *

 

The Avengers stared at the abandoned warehouse before them. It was a hard slog from the Quinjet to this point only two blocks away because every step they took their instincts screamed at them to turn around. The two chained gods seemed less affected by the mental barrier. The building was squat, dark and dingy. Most of the windows were either boarded up or broken.

“I mean could they have picked a more stereotypical location.” Hawkeye griped trying to hide his disquiet.

Sean shrugged. “Why mess with success.”

“No its not. The bad guys are always found out.” Countered Hawkeye. All his years of training as an agent and an operative told him that clichéd choices like this were never to the advantage of the people using them. He could not believe that the Chitauri or whoever controlled them now would deliberately do something so uncreative.

“One should always do these things properly or not at all.” Sean nodded sagely with a weird quirk of the lips.

“But it’s not! Seriously this is by far the worst way to do this!” Hawkeye was getting really steamed now. He was not happy about SHIELD and the Avengers so willing working with Loki. They were on their way right now to rescue Loki’s wife for God’s sake, something he still couldn’t believe that. The stupidity of their enemy now was staggering and was irritating his already frayed nerves.

“Hawkeye can you get a visual on the building’s interior?” Captain America asked. The archer scanned the surrounding rooftops and the target.

“No, the interior is too dark to see into and thermal doesn’t seem to pick up the Chitauri or those mechanical... things. I don’t see any guards either. The whole place is quite.”

The old war hero nodded, slipping into strategy mode “Looks like we’ll be going in blind. From the building plans the most likely place they’d be holding Reagan is in the office near the south corner. Now our best point of entry is the backdoor. Iron Man will take point followed by myself, then Loki and Sean with Thor at the rear. Hawkeye, you and Black Widow will stay out here and watch the perimeter. Let us know if anyone some much as looks at this warehouse.” The team acknowledged the orders and got into position.

Iron Man carefully and quietly cut the lock to the door before swinging it open. It gave off a loud squeal of rusted metal as it opened. The group tensed waiting to be set upon by Chitauri or the like. Nothing came. Captain America slipped past Iron Man, bringing his shield up just in case. It wasn’t until they moved a few steps further into the near black interior that they discovered the horrifying reason for the lack of resistance. The Chitauri were all dead. Bodies were haphazardly strewn around the half empty room.

Iron Man crouched down next to one of the corpses. “There’s some kind of fluid leaking out of its nose, eyes, mouth. Really everywhere.” The next two Chitauri were the same, fluid was oozing out of every orifice. He looked back at the others “I don’t like this.”

Sean moved towards another one, examining the creature’s face “We need to hurry things up.” His voice was strained. No one disagreed.

Light illuminated the open office door. A Chitauri had died in the doorway but they easily pushed it out of the way. Reagan sat tied to a chair in the centre of the room. Another alien, not Chitauri, lay sprawled across the table between them, its spear point hovered just under her neck forcing her to hold her head very still. Beyond the ropes tying her to the chair and the tense body language, the woman sitting there would not have looked out of place at a black tie affair, her hair and makeup still in immaculate condition.

“Reagan!” Loki exclaimed running forward to free her clumsily, the cuffs making it awkward. The two shared an intimate embrace.

The three Avengers stood there a little off footed on what to do now. The girl had been rescued, there had been no aliens to fight and none of them seem too eager to ruin the moment between the couple. Iron Man broke the moment first. “How did the Chitauri die?”

Reagan glared over Loki’s shoulder at him “Natural causes.” She said tersely.

“Yes, murder is a perfectly natural cause of death.” Sean added with dark humour.

Reagan separated herself from her husband and turned to face the Avengers “The Other stupidly thought that his skills were such that he could match me. He was wrong and when he could get what he wanted he switched to brute force. I merely put a stop to that.” She gave Sean a long hard look. Before the stunned and slack jawed heroes could rally their thoughts the dark haired goddess turned to address them again “We should be leaving. I’m sure that these... creature’s deaths have not gone unnoticed by their allies. They will be here shortly.” She moved to leave.

Captain America held out an arm to stop her. “Wait now, I think we need some answers first. How did you kill the Chitauri? Why are they after you? Who are they working with? Who is the Other?” “We don’t have time. I can answer all these questions and more back on the Helicarrier.” She moved to push them out the door. “Oh no you don’t!” Iron Man shouted chasing after her. 


	5. Chapter 5

“We don’t have time. I can answer all these questions and more back on the Helicarrier.” She moved to push them out the door.

“Oh no you don’t!” Iron Man countered “We’ve been through a lot to find you without a whole hell of a lot in the way of answers.”

Captain America stepped forward before the rescued woman could answer “I’m afraid that I’m going to have to agree with Mr. Stark. We helped Mr. Ruskin and your husband because you were missing and in danger. Now that you’re safe Ma’am we are going to need some answer before we proceed.” He was cut off by a buzz of his earpiece. It was Clint.

“Hey, what going on in there? Have you found our kidnapping victim? Are the Chitauri neutralized or not?”

Reagan was scanning the room “Have them come in here. No point in being all spread out.”

The good captain gave her an unhappy frown “guys you should come in here. The threat is neutralized and the target is secured. We’re trying to get some answers now so you might as well join us.” He said with resignation.

Thor approached his brother who was intently watching his wife. Loki didn’t bother to turn “What now, brother? Are you going to drag me back to Asgard? Throw me back in that cell?” he asked tightly. He had not spoken more than two words to his not-brother since this whole ordeal had begun and he was hoping to keep it that way.

Thor was taken aback by the chill to his brother’s words. “Brother... Come home. Mother will want to meet your new wife. Father will want to hear how you have reformed...You have reformed?” he asked in a small voice.

Loki let out a frustrated snort “Does it really matter. I am never coming home. I am finally happy and you think I would risk all that to come home, especially now that...” Loki trailed off without finishing the thought just continued to stare at Reagan.

Sean was examining their surroundings with a practiced eye“Not much of location, is it? But then again not a lot of people around so that a plus. What do you think?” he turned towards the brunette.

She shrugged “Not ideal but we’ve felt with worst.”

* * *

 

Hawkeye and Black Widow walked in right as their rescued damsel in distress was arguing with Captain America and Iron Man. “For someone who has just been rescued you’re not too thankful.” Iron Man snarked.

"Thankful?!” she screeched. “You could not have been less helpful! Or didn’t you notice the pile of corpses everywhere. I certainly didn’t need you sticking around getting in the way when the real masterminds behind all this show up.” Loki’s wife fumed.

“We are not leaving you three to deal with whatever is coming. They attacked Earth which makes it our business Ma’am.” The good captain’s tone left little room to argue but somehow she found it, moving faster than anyone could react she grabbed Widow’s side arm and fired a single round dead centre in Sean’s chest. The bullet seemed to pass through him without doing any more than leaving a small hole in Sean’s clothes. There was no blood, no mark what so ever that showed that a bullet had passed through his torso. Sean fingered the bullet hole in his suit jacket. “This was a custom suit! It cost me thousands of dollars!” he whined but he was ignored by the others. The Avengers just goggled at the unreal event.

She turned back towards the stunned heroes. “Your weapons don’t hurt us. So what are you going to do? Bleed?” she sneered.

Black Widow had to wonder if she was right. What good would they be against people couldn’t be hurt.

Iron Man was poking and prodding Sean’s bullet hole ridden suit. “How did you do that? I mean that bullet went straight through him. Do you have some kind of phase shift ability? Do you even exists on our plane of existence?- That doesn’t make sense because you wouldn’t be able to interact with stuff- Oh! I know, you heal super fast so the bullet did go through you it just appeared to be unhurt.” His gleeful interest on the scientific workings of the alien beings was apparent.

Sean still had not got over Reagan ‘s actions, ignoring the armoured man’s inquiries “I can’t believe you would shoot me. I loved this suit.”

She was having none of Sean’s whinging or Iron Man’s curiosity “Do shut up Sean.” She turned to towards the silent stare down the remaining occupants of the cramped office were having. “Time to be leaving , don’t you agree?” she stressed.

Loki began to usher his wife out of the room “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be involved in what comes next. Now is not the time for you to take risks.” He gently admonished her “There’s more than just you to consider now.” He said pointedly. She held his stare challenging him. He knew she wasn’t likely to listen to him on this but he felt it was his job to make sure she took care of herself- even if she wouldn’t.

* * *

 

“So it’s some kind of phase device then?” Iron Man and Sean were the last to leave the cramped office space into the warehouse’s main space still talking about the science behind Sean’s bullet trick. “Something like that. It’s more a temporal-spatial distortion. The ring creates a temporal field over the entire body. When the wearer takes damage such as -say a bullet to the chest- then the device rewinds time to a preset point thusly undoing the damage.”

“And it’s the size of a ring?” he pointed to the plain gold band on Sean’s hand.

“Yes.”

“Amazing. When we’re done can I take a look at it?”

Sean hesitated “Well I’m not sure that’s such a great idea.” Sean looked over at Reagan. “I’m no expert on this technology.”

Suddenly both Sean and Reagan froze. “They’re here.” she whispered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woot! Another chapter! It only took like a year to do but hopefully the next won't take quite so long for the next one.


End file.
